A Budget Committee
Yesterday was a very busy day in the office. For the last two weeks, my office has been working on the Pakatan Harapan alternative budget 2016, which will be announced when Parliament resits on 19th October.
From PKR’s side, YB Rafizi Ramli leads the budget team and this year he has a very capable intern, Eric Lee who is in charge of the primary writing of the document. PKR’s think tank, Institut Rakyat’s Yin Shao Loong and Ginie Lim are major contributors on new policy ideas and addressing inequality. My colleague from PKR Investment and Trade Bureau, Dr Fahmi Ngah is the macroeconomics expert and contributes on oil and gas numbers. Myself and Wyhow (my super office mathematician) are in charge of anti recession economics and the fiscal forecasts on revenue and expenditure.
As for our partners, DAP’s Dr Ong Kian Meng and his team of 4 researchers are crafting two major economic policy position papers on Sabah & Sarawak, and the fiscal treatment of Contingent Liabilities. From Amanah, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and team is in charge of rural and agricultural development policies and principles of Islamic economics.
Yesterday, Eric Lee came in for a full day of work on the budget. Dr Dzul dropped by too for 3 hours for the same discussion. Earlier in the day, I did a radio interview on the Haze with Radio Free Sarawak. Then I had a video interview with CCTV News on Malaysia’s competitive ranking by WEF.
It was a good day of solid work. It was a very good day to be a Member of Parliament, free of the insane and petty politics, just getting down on working on my passion, which is policy work.